The record victory margin of Congress candidate Chandy Oommen at the Puthuppally bypoll in Kerala on Friday should be an eye-opener for the ruling CPI(M) and Left Democratic Front. The son of former chief minister Oommen Chandy won the seat by a record margin of 37,719 votes. The highest victory margin before this was in 2011 when Oommen Chandy won by 33,255 votes.
In 2021, the victory margin for Oommen Chandy was only 9,044. Jaick C Thomas, the present CPI(M) candidate was the candidate back then as well but there has been a drastic change in the victory margin.
The Left Front attributed the Congress victory to the “sympathy factor”. The elections were held less than a month after Oommen Chandy died, and he had represented this assembly constituency for 53 years since 1970.
“We knew that the sympathy factor was huge. This is not a vote against the government. We were able to keep our core votes. We will analyse the results, look at how the votes came down,” said CPI(M) state secretary MV Govindan.
The BJP candidate could only manage 6,558 votes. In 2021, the saffron camp had secured 11,694 votes and 15,993 votes in 2016. “The spectacular victory is a clear message to the (Narendra) Modi-led government as well as the Pinarayi (Vijayan) government. Both the BJP and the CPI(M) have been rejected by the people of Puthuppally. The message is clear and this is a semi-final. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Kerala, the UDF will make a clean sweep,” said senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala.
Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh, who is also the state Congress working president, said the people of Puthuppally had issued a warning to central and state governments due to their “anti-people” policies.
There are allegations against chief minister P Vijayan’s daughter and her company about receiving monthly payments from another company but he has not said a word about it. The CPI(M) had issued a statement that they were legitimate and transparent transactions between the two companies.
The Congress had raised these issues during the election campaign for the bypoll and had, from the beginning, said the results will be a testament to the performance of the state government.
K Surendran, state BJP president, said the “sympathy factor” and anti-incumbency against the ruling regime was reflected in the Puthuppally bypoll result. “There was a massive anti-incumbency wave against the P Vijayan-led government, corruption and all these illegal activities by the chief minister and his family. Thse have been reflected in the election result. Compared to the CPI(M), our decline in number of votes is less,” he said.
Political analysts, meanwhile, said the result was a warning for the CPI(M). “Sympathy vote for Oommen Chandy is a factor but, at the same time, it’s also a warning for the CPI(M) and the Left Front to mend their ways . The massive vote margin is a warning to CPI(M),” said J Prabhash, political analyst and former head of department of political science, University of Kerala.
He said the bypoll result shows that the people are not happy with the allegations against Vijayan and his family. “The CPI(M) will have to address this issue, analyse it and respond to the people. They have to give an answer, if they don’t correct their ways it can be seen as a sign for 2024 (Lok Sabha elections),” he added.
